Dystopian Lit Blog 7

Part 2: Should you resist the feed or embrace the feed? How so?

Anderson takes the idea of our technology saturated society and use of social networking, and bows it way out of proportion. The book is a satire ,so this was his intent, but he comes across more as a condescending jerk and a Luddite than a concerned individual. His commentary and very apparent views on the teenagers of today make one wonder why he would ever write young adult fiction if he so obviously has no respect for his audience.

The extent to which the feed influences the characters of the book such as Titus and friends is very obviously bad and tells us that we should resist the feed, but at this point in time we do not have the internet integrated into our brain. What we do have is social networking sites. Should we resist these and the general pull of mobile technology? Yes and No, it’s a balance. Technology is not bad. The overuse of some technology is bad, but all of the devices we use today were created to help people. Smart phones are an easy example  of something that Anderson would criticize, they allow the internet to be with us at virtually all times, we can search anything and be in constant contact with anyone. The overuse and dependence on such a device is bad. Being able to disconnect and be away from other people for a period of time is important, everyone needs to learn the value of their own company and the ability to think for themselves, but to so blatantly condemn all of these things refuses to acknowledge the validity of other people’s narratives. Social media and texting is very good at allowing people who are geographically separated to connect! I moved from Texas to Illinois at the end of of my freshman year, I am still in contact with my best friend because I can text her, I can still wish my friends in Texas a happy birthday because of facebook. Social media was designed to connect people and when used wisely that is what it does.

Another thing Anderson has a problem with  is the way students can simply look up anything and think that passes for knowledge in school and life. He has somewhat of a point with this, if you just look something up be never remember it that doesn't count as learning. But the ability to look up things easily is very useful! Anderson references a number of historical events and even some fictional books. I was able to look these up easily because I have access to the internet, but if I did not I would have to go search through my US history book which I won’t do because I don’t care enough. easy access to information is a blessing not a curse.

The feed, or at least it’s equivalent in today’s society is only as bad as we make it. Overuse of anything is bad. These technologies were created to help humans connect, they were well intended and what we do with them is up to us. If we overuse that it’s our fault, but you shouldn't throw away a very useful piece of technology because it is being overused by some.